So what's a famous award winning flavor combo that never gets old? Peanut butter and chocolate of course! What's the best type of candy bar to find in your candy bag at Halloween? Snickers! What happens when you put those two truths together in the form of ice cream? Serious Eat's "Better than Snickers," ice cream of course! I tagged and flagged this recipe a while ago. With the weather turning chilly and the patio seating options not as plentiful I've had to find new ways to amuse myself. Which meant out came the ice cream maker.

As I've mentioned before I use corn starch instead of egg yolks to thicken my ice creams. This recipe is even better because the peanut butter works as the thickener. No slurry! Just add some no-stir peanut butter to that cream base!

 Remove from heat and add these three: butter, half and half and salt. Stir...let cool.

Use that time the caramel is cooling wisely.... it's churning time! Set up your ice cream maker and bring out the wet mixture from the fridge. Churn that mother down.....



Once you're ice cream is done churning you'll want to store it. Layer caramel between the ice cream and twirl a knife through it to create a "ripple."

Sometimes I think I am a grandmother trapped in a not-quite middle aged woman's body. Why? Because I insist on expressing my affection and love for the young through copious amounts of sugary foods in pretty packaging. It's holiday time again and I love it! Squee!!!! Back when Kris Kross ruled the charts and the 1st generation of slap bracelets were popular (the kind of metal inside) I loved me some Halloween. I still do. But I never manage to get it together to make a great costume like I used to. It makes me sad just thinking about it. I still do love Halloween...although I'm not on the 'sexy/slutty' costume bandwagon. Go figure. I did it once... and that was enough. Even though I haven't dressed up the last few years I do love seeing my nieces/nephews costumes and helping them get into the spirit of the night. So this year I put together a small Halloween package for two groups: my nieces/nephews and my cousin who recently went off to college.

First up... festive cookies. I pulled out the best-cut-out-cookies recipe again and got to work. That was the easy part! What took patience was decorating. I mixed up some royal icing, gathered some squeeze bottles, some food coloring and sprinkles. Then I pulled a stool up to the counter and got to work.





Secondly, I wanted to make some flavored popcorn. As of late I've been all about the maple spice popcorn mix when at home. But I didn't think it would travel well so I used a recipe for popcorn balls I'd been waiting to make. Caramel with a touch of cocoa, cayenne and orange zest.



As always I had to get my packaging together. Thanks to the internet and the DIY craze this wasn't too hard. I came across a post about making a Halloween party in a box and used that for my inspiration for my cousin's college care package.

Halloween Dorm Room Party

• decorative calavera garland
• sweet treats in a box
• bewitchingly beautiful nail polish in orange and sparkly black
• cocoa-cayenne caramel popcorn
• hand-made card

I got the template for the card from Can't Stop Making Things. And the chevron box from Party Box Design. It's amazing what you can find online for free! A little patience, a nice playlist, and half a day can make a world of difference when packaging treats!

For the younger set I just kept it simple. Sugar in it's various forms plus a hand-made card. Inside their treat bags I put: gummie body parts and insects, calavera suckers, bloody vampire fang candy and a Halloween themed kaleidoscope. I also threw in a candy bar... full size. I got the treat bag toppers and candy bar wrappers from Creature Comforts.

This is what I used to tell my nephew in my futile attempt to get him to eat slower. I tell you, elementary school aged boys can plow through a plate of food.  But, I am saying this now to prove I eat things other than dessert. It's not all cakes, cookies, and pies in my kitchen. Sometimes I try to eat a well balanced meal. Here are some non-dessert things I've made recently....

Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes!

You take buttermilk pancakes and add some poppy seeds and lemon zest. I also threw in the juice of said lemon because otherwise it would have sat on the counter making me feel guilty.

"Egyptian" Tomato Soup

I tagged this recipe last year and was able to make it as a shooter appetizer for a dinner party my friend was having. He made Ethiopian food... including homemade injera. I made this soup. I know that they're different cuisines but I figured many African nations have similar spice profiles so I'd take some liberties. I'm not sure how authentic this is. But, I will say it was delicious and super easy. Plus, I got to use my immersion blender! It's soup season... holla!





Step 3: Blend til smooth.... Enjoy!

Soup and Sammie lunch! 

Oh Rachael Ray... get outta my head with all your made up words! I didn't get either of these recipes from Ray Ray though. The Farmer's Sandwich came from Kitchen Therapy. Gotta love that blog! Since it was a dreary day I toasted mine in the oven. Who knew apples, cheese and onion makes such a great sandwich? The soup is Curried Lentil w/ Chickpea puree, and I got the recipe from Serious Eats.





So yes... I do eat things other than cookies and cakes. This is proof! I've got some more fall soup recipes up my sleeve too. As the weather turns cooler and the evenings get darker sooner what will you do to find a bit of cold weather pleasure?

So remember how I made those oatmeal cookies with malt powder? I had some left over right? So what's a girl to do? I needed to cull my pantry in order to make room for more, newer, ingredients. I decided to take my malt powder and turn my favorite ice cream into a cupcake. Enter the Chubby Hubby cupcake.

For those not in the know... Chubby Hubby is a Ben & Jerry's flavor. It's got malted vanilla ice cream, chocolate covered PB filled pretzels, chocolate swirls and PB swirls. In short. It is awesome. Sweet, salty, and malty!

First task... integrating the pretzel element. I chose the crumb crust route. I figured it'd give a bit of texture to the cupcake experience in the form of a buttery, crunchy, bottom layer. So I took out my food processor and crushed up some pretzels.

Then I mixed them with a couple table spoons of melted butter and smooshed them into the bottom of my cupcake liners.




Next up? Chocolate! I used a chocolate cupcake recipe from How Sweet It Is. I wanted something with actual chocolate and cocoa powder. I'm a glutton like that. I also recently realized that I left my hand mixer's beater blades at the summer rental house my family stayed at so I wanted something that didn't require creaming butter and sugar for the batter.







Now let's get to the best part.... make some plain old vanilla butter cream.... Dump the remaining malt powder into it.... Beat the hell out of it with a fork. As you work on your arm muscles don't be upset you left your beaters in Michigan City, because now your forearms get that work out they've been needing!


 Cupcake assembly line!

Finally... it was time for a garnish? What's my rule about garnish? It should give you a hint as to what flavors to expect in your food. Is this what Alton Brown would do? Alex Guarnaschelli? I'm not sure. But it's how I role.

Okay. So I have a confession to make. This post is a month in the making. I originally planned to make these cookies for my big sister's birthday. I went out. Bought the pistachios. Made the cookies... and ate them. Not in one sitting. But first my mom tasted one or two. Then my sister. Then a friend came over and wanted a snack. Before I knew it there were only 3 cookies left and I just couldn't send only 3 cookies. So I vowed to make them again and send some at a later date. I eventually did and promptly put a dozen in the freezer to keep them fresh and away from prying hands until they could be sent.

I snagged this recipe from Joy the Baker. But if I remember correctly it's originally posted on Smitten Kitchen. Or you could just take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and swap for dark chocolate chips/chunks and add pistachios. Oh! Note to self.... if you can pay $0.50 extra for pistachio meats pre-hulled do it. I spend waaay to much time prying those bad babies open. Although it did give me the time to listen to another podcast. I recently started listening to podcast when I bake instead of turning on the TV. It gives me something to do AND I feel better about myself afterwards b/c it's not TV.

So the first time I made these cookies I just scooped them out onto the baking sheet and put them in the oven. But, they didn't spread as much as I wanted... Sometimes I want nice thin cookies with a little chew to them. So I consulted a professional and she suggested I take them time to flatten them before baking them. Cuh-raizy I know! Here I was all worried about butter to flour ratios and/or the need to adjust the oven temperature and the solution was so simple all along. I thought smashing the dough would have been sacrilegious. But, apparently sometimes it is better to K.I.S.S. Also in the background of the picture above you can see a stack of the malted oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut, pretzel cookies I made. Why? I love cookies with a lot of stuff in them! I also was excited to try malted milk powder in a cookie. I love, love, love malts. I was hoping this would be my new go to recipe. Verdict isn't in yet. My mom likes them though. She's been eating them all week!

You know... I try to act like I'm "grown" and I know a thing or two about making cakes (among other types of information). However, even with all my learnin' about bakin' sometimes I still make mistakes. Sometimes I get tired, or rushed, and I can't do the "right" thing even though I know it's right. Sometimes you're working on a deadline and you've got to frost a cake despite the fact that you've also been cooking in a small kitchen. And you know the butter you took out to soften before the pasta bake went into the over is waaaaay too soft now. And that all kitchen science you've read in "Cook's Illustrated" and Alton Brown (the food nerd on high) tells you that too soft butter will not lead to pretty butter cream... You take a beater to that butter anyway and try to "cream" it. Yes, dear friends, I committed a foodie foul. But it still tasted good!

It was my PaPa's birthday a few weeks ago and I wasn't able to celebrate it with him on time. I was at his house a week later though so I brought a cake to celebrate belatedly. My gramps had mentioned making zucchini bread the previous time we hung out. He's not into a lot of prep work in the kitchen. So I offered to shred the zucchini for him... but he still wasn't 100% sure he was ready for such an endeavor. Me being the awesome granddaughter that I am ::brushes shoulders off:: decided to treat him to some zucchini bread flavor in the form of a cake. I used a trusted source and found this recipe.

I'll admit. I've made prettier cakes... and this frosting would not set even when I stuck it in the freezer post crumb-coat. I still licked my fingers after slicing. And my PaPa had 2 slices! So all in all... I'd still put this in the "plus" column.

2012 SUMMER BUCKET LIST ACTIVITY: MAKE A PIE

I did it! I made a pie! If you know me, or if you read this blog regularly, you know I'm 100% Team Cake. In the dessert face off of pie vs. cake.... Cake is the only answer. In general I don't like my fruit warm so pie just ain't my thing. So, I've only made a hand full of pies in my lifetime. But I wanted to make a pie this summer and I found a recipe that allowed me to cross this off my bucket list. It was a chocolate pudding pie which ended up being a bit of a compromise. I didn't have an peanuts in my kitchen so I nixed those and added crushed pretzels instead.




So I don't know how to cut pie properly. This is a self perpetuating thing where because I don't like pie. I don't make pie. So I never have to cut a pie. So when I do have to cut a pie it's incredibly hard for me to balance the pie on the knife and place it on a plate. Then when I do have to try I get super embarassed. Then I remember I don't even really like pie in the first place and now my attempt to change my mind has landed me in an awkward situation... Repeat cycle. With that confessed....




No I did not eat the entire pie myself. I had help. Per usual me making something in the kitchen usual means I have to create some social situation around eating said food. My friends came through for me again. Also my big brother helped b/c he let me host a social function at his swank house with surround sound and gigantic TV screen. I've already gotten ahead of myself! Let's rewind to some basics.

I made a pie that needed to be eaten. My friend had also recently posted a delicious looking beer cocktail recipe on my Facebook page. All summer I'd been wanting to have a movie night. So all these things combined in a movie night hosted at my brother's house with a few friends. Before heading to my brother's house I had to get some beer. This meant I HAD to go to the local brew pub for a growler. Since I was in the area and it was around lunch this happened:



Much later in the day I was able together with friends and not drink alone. Sometimes when I'm preparing for a food & friends activity I hum the theme song to that show the Wonder Years to myself. I think it's originally a Beatles song but we didn't listen to the Beatles in my house growing up. We listened to Motown. If you didn't notice that's not a tan nor bad lighting in my photos. I'm Black. So I just associate it with Kevin Arnold also the pilot in "Flight of the Navigator."  For dinner we had banh mi sandwiches which I love! Remember how I made my friends take the train to Brooklyn for them a few summers ago? For a drink we made the intense but tasty beer cocktail the Cocky Rooster.

2012 SUMMER BUCKET LIST ACTIVITY: TAKE A ROAD TRIP

 I talk about family a bit on here. They're super importante in my book. I love them and that's good because I recently spent 8 hrs in a car with a couple members. Although I have lived and resided in the great Mitten state for most of my life my family is technically Southern. My grandfather moved north of the Mason Dixie line as part of the Great Migration. He grew up in segregated Kentucky in a small town called Cadiz. The family reunion took place a week ago(?) and my brother and I drove my grandfather down so we could all participate.






There was also a historic Bingham hayride offered throughout the town. They stopped at the old homesteads and the graveyard. Here are some photos from that:





Whew!  It's been an amazing July/August month. I still have a few more things to do while the weather's still warm. Hopefully I can share some experiences with you.